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Rebekka buried on print but is very much alive

By KOLBEINN TUMI DAÐASON
Rebekka Margrét Ágústsdóttir.
Rebekka Margrét Ágústsdóttir.
"My brother called me and said that he was very happy that I answered the phone," Rebekka Margrét Ágústsdóttir from Múli says. Rebekka is alive and kicking as the readers of Morgunblaðið found out this morning when they looked at the obituaries in the newspaper. They included a correction from a man named Gylfi Guðjónsson.

Gylfi Guðjónsson, who was confirmed with Rebekka in Nauteyrarkirkja in the spring of 1958, wrota an obituary last week on the late Reverand Baldur Vilhelmsson who passed away on the 26th of last November. Gylfi reminisced about his confirmation and mentioned those three who were confirmed at the same time. He said that they were all dead except Gylfi. An obituary was published on the 4th of December, but today a correction was published in the paper:

Still alive

In Gylfi Guðjónsson's obituary on Reverand Baldur Vilhelmsson, published on 4th of November he made the mistake of saying that Rebekka Ágústsdóttir from Múli was dead. The truth is that she's still alive and Gylfi wants to apologise to all those concerned.

It has caught attention that the correction states that the obituary was published on the 4th of November when the truth is that it was published in Morgunblaðið on the 4th of December. Yet, that error must be minor in comparison with the other one.

Rebekka was in high spirits when interviewed this morning and laughed a lot when interviewed this morning. She was certainly a bit shocked when her brother called her the day obituary was published. An acquaintance of hers had conacted her earlier that morning, quite upset, and said that he would have attended the funeral if he had known about it.

Said that she was calling from beyond

Rebekka said that she found the phone number of her foster brother, Gylfi, and heard what he had to say.

"I asked him if he recognised me. He said that he had heard the voice. Then I told him I was calling from beyond,“ Rebekka says, obviously with the humor in a right spirit.

He was a little startled,“ Rebekka says. When asked about this, she says that she has not had any explanation how she " „died“.

„He was almost sure that it had happened long ago.“

Then Gylfi phoned Rebekka later that day when he had recovered from his mistakes. He apologised and suggested a correction to be published that has now been done. He wondered quite a lot if Rebekka had never attended Djúpmannamót in the capital city, which is a regular event.

„I've never attended it but I told him that I might consider it. If I could find a white dress,“ Rebekka says laughing. „Maybe it would be better to show up and let people see that I am alive!“

Not buried on print

Even though Rebekka finds all of this ver y funny, she advices obituary writers to make sure that people are really dead before writing anything down on paper.

„It has occurred that someone I belive to be dead then turns out to alive and kicking. But I have not buried them on print,“ Rebekka says. Then it has also happened that she believed someone to be alive but then it turned out they were already dead.

„There is nothing unusual about it that people think something which then turns out to be incorrect. But it is best to check it before writing it down on paper,“ Rebekka says and reminds everyone to use Google, the search engine.






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